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This article describes the events of the 560s, when the queen-nun Radegund acquired the relic of the True Cross for her convent in Poitiers. Her request for the major Christian shrine to the Byzantine Emperor Justin II and his wife Sophia was untimely: the foreign policy situation at that moment was very difficult – the Kingdom of the Franks was divided among the sons of King Chlothar I. Sigebert, the ruler of Austrasia, sought to strengthen his power and influence among the Franks and in the international scene. The conquests of the Lombards forced the Byzantines and the Franks to seek peace with each other. The obtained results show that both states took advantage of the situation with the relic to conclude a peace treaty without openly declaring their intentions. The roles of each participant in the organization of the embassy to the court of Justin II in 568 are considered. The ulterior motives of the poetic messages sent by Radegund to her relatives in Constantinople are analyzed. These events are a good example of how Sigebert, one of the Frankish kings, solved the foreign and domestic political tasks of that time. The casus with the relic of the True Cross reveals the “inside” of the political and diplomatic mechanics in Byzantium and the Frankish kingdoms.

Kaisarios Dapontes, the son of a prosperous family in Chios, spent much of his life in the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Following his studies at the Princely Academy in Iaşi, he was entrusted with administrative roles. After series of professional and personal crises, he became a monk on Mount Athos. During a six-year fundraising tour equipped with the relic of the True Cross from the Monastery of Xeropotamos, he also visited the Holy Putna Monastery. He was also a prolific author of historical, educational and edifying works in poetry and prose. After a brief introduction to his life, this article discusses the motivations and social context of Dapontes' literary production. Particular focus is placed on his attitudes towards the Byzantine past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the virtually unpublished reliquary of Serbian provenance now kept in the Museo Diocesano in Pienza. It tackles the issue of the typology of the staurotheke, its decoration and symbolic significance. Based on its Old-Serbian inscription, “Sava, the first archbishop and patriarch of the Serbs”, the reliquary is dated to the last quarter of the fourteenth century and related to the programme of the Serbian Patriarchate. The surviving sources make it possible to reconstruct the road the staurotheke travelled from the treasuries of Žiča and the Patriarchate of Peć to Pienza. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: Institutions and culture]